Novak Djokovic is two wins away from capturing titles at all four of his fall tournaments. Standing in his way of the London final on Sunday is Stanislas Wawrinka.
It seems appropriate that Stanislas Wawrinka’s season is all coming down to this.
Wawrinka is wrapping up the best year of his career, but it could have been that much better if not for Novak Djokovic. They faced each other in two Grand Slam thrillers, with Djokovic prevailing both times; 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7(5), 12-10 at the Australian Open and 2-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Heading into semifinal Sunday at the World Tour Finals, Djokovic is dominating the overall head-to-head series at the ATP level 14-2–including 9-1 on hard courts. Their third 2013 came last month at the Shanghai Masters, where the Serb scored a much more comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory. Wawrinka took two of their first three meetings, both in 2006, only to lose 13 in a row.
Comfortable is exactly what Wawrinka’s passage into the London semifinals was not. The eighth-ranked Swiss beat Tomas Berdych in three sets then lost to Rafael Nadal in two tiebreakers before needing a win on Friday over David Ferrer. Wawrinka got the job done after recovering from a set deficit, but he still had to sweat out the remaining hours of the day. Nadal had to beat Berdych in order for Wawrinka to advance and the Spaniard did, holding off the Czech in three tight sets.
Djokovic was in relative cruise-control on his way through robin-robin competition, improving his unblemished post-U.S. Open record to 20-0. The Beijing, Shanghai, and Paris champion took care of Roger Federer, Juan Martin Del Potro, and Richard Gasquet–although he required three sets in all three matches.
Wawrinka served at 55 percent against Berdych, 47 percent against Nadal, and 57 percent against Ferrer. Unless those numbers improve significantly against perhaps the best returner in the game, he is going to be in for a long day at the office. The underdog must dictate play with first-strike tennis using his serve and one-handed backhand, because his defense is nowhere near the caliber of Djokovic’s. Unfortunately for Wawrinka, he may be on the defensive more often than not on a relatively slow indoor hard court.
Pick: Djokovic in 2
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